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Representative Writers in 18th Century
(1688-1798)
by Huang Xin
E_mail:huang_sharp@sohu.com

I. Daniel Defoe (1660?--1731) was born in London, the son of a butcher. His parents set him apart for the ministry, but he gave up the idea of becoming a preacher. After schooling, he became a hosier, and between 1678 and 1683 traveled in Spain, Italy, France and Germany as a merchant. In the year 1685 Defoe took part in the Duck of Monmouth¡¯s rebellion against James II and narrowly escaped punishment. In 1688, he joined the advancing forces of William III. His first important signed work was An Essay upon Projects (1697), followed by The True-Born Englishman(1701), an immensely popular satirical poem attacking the prejudice against a king of foreign birth and his Dutch friends. In 1702 appeared The Shortest Way with Dissenters, a notorious pamphlet in which Defoe, himself a Dissenter, ironically demanded the total and savage suppression of dissent; for this he was fined and imprisoned and pilloried. While being in prison he wrote his Hymn to the Pillory, which was quickly spread all over London and made him a public hero. Defoe wrote many pamphlets, in 1703 began The Review; in the same year appeared his pamphlet Giving Alms no Charity and others. Defoe was an extremely versatile and prolific writer, and produced some 560 books, pamphlets, and journals, many anonymously (no name) or pseudonymously, but the works for which he is best known belong to his later years *Robinson Crusoe (The life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe) appeared in 1719, and the other is *Moll Flanders (The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders).
Style: As we all know, the principal problem of the Enlightenment-influence of society on man¡¯s nature¡ªstands in the centre of all these novels. The writers and philosophers of the enlightenment held that man is good and noble by nature but may succumb to an evil environment. So did Defoe in his novels. His ¡°Robinson Crusoe¡± was on of the forerunners of the English realistic novel. It creates the image of an enterprising Englishman, typical of the English bourgeoisie of the 18th century. And in his novels the reader is taken from country scenes to large cities, from the thieves¡¯ den to the court of kings. The reader draws the inevitable conclusion: there is no other difference between the world of thieves and vagabonds on the one hand and that of the lords and ladies on the other but that the former receives sympathy which the latter does not.
Contribution: Defoe died in his lodging in Rope-maker¡¯s Alley, Moorefield¡¯s, and was buried in what is now Bun-hill Fields. Defoe¡¯s influence on the evolution of the English novel was enormous, and many regard him as the first true novelist. He was a master of plain prose and powerful narrative, with a journalist¡¯s curiosity and love of realistic details; his peculiar gifts made him one of the greatest reporters of his time, as well as a great imaginative writer who in Robinson Crusoe created one of the most familiar and resonant myths of modern literature. (The oxford companion to English Literature, 1993:263)
II. Jonathan Swift (1667¡ª1745), was born in Dublin after his father¡¯ death. Accepting the aid from his relatives, he was educated at Trinity College, where he was censured for offences against discipline, obtaining his degree only by ¡®special grace¡¯. He was admitted (1689) to the household of Sir W. Temple, and there acted as secretary. In 1697, he wrote The battle of the Books, which was published in 1704 together with A Tale of the Tub his celebrated satire on ¡®corruptions in religion and learning¡¯, the two satirical essays made him famous (know as satirist) among literary figures in London. He returned to Ireland in Aug. 1714 and occupied himself with Irish affairs, being led by his resentment of the policy of the Whigs. By his famous The Drapier¡¯s letter, he prevented the introduction of ¡®Wood¡¯s half-pence¡¯ into Ireland. A Modest Proposal (1729) is a more bitter satire on the policy of English government towards the Irish people. (In this book he suggests that the children of the poor should be fattened to feed the rich, an offer he describes as ¡®innocent, cheap, easy and effectual¡¯.) Swift published a great number of works besides the more important, referred to above.
Style 1.Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. His language is simple, clear and vigorous. He said, ¡°Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style.¡± Keeping his object steadily before him, he drives straight on to the end. There are no ornaments in his writing, but it comes home to the reader. 2. He seems to have no difficulty in finding words to express exactly the impression which he wishes to convey. In simple, direct and precise prose, Swift is almost unsurpassed in English literature. It is a great education in English to read Swift¡¯s prose. 3. Swift is a master satirist, and his irony is deadly. But his satire is masked by an outward gravity, and an apparent calmness conceals his bitter irony. This makes his satire all the more powerful, as shown in his ¡°modest Proposal.¡± (Liu Bingshan, 2002:171)
III. Alexander Pope (1688¡ª1744), the most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century, was the son of a Roman Catholic linen-draper of London. His health was ruined and his growth stunted by a sever illness at the age of 12, but he showed his precocious metrical skill in his ¡®pastorals¡¯ published in Tonson¡¯s Miscellanies (vol. VI) in 1709. His Essay on criticism (1711) and his mock epic The Rape of the Lock (1712), made him known to Addison¡¯s circle. But in 1713, he drifted away from Addison and became the member of the ¡°Scriblerus Club¡±, and association that included Swift, gay, Arbuthnot, and others, and whose object was to ¡°ridicule all false tastes in learning¡±. The second period from 1720 to 1726, his mainly works was the translation of Homer¡¯s epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. In 1725, Pope published an edition of Shakespeare, the errors in which were pointed out by Theobald, a scholar of his time, so he wrote a long poem called The Dunciad to fiercely attack quite a few people, Theobald being the major target. The last creative period was marked by the publication of the first 3 books of The Dunciad in 1728, and then he published ¡°Four Epistles¡±, he called this collection of poems An Essay on Man, (In Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, he addresses man's ability to reason, questions the nature of Christianity, and speculates about man's place in the world.) is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets, consisting of 4 letters addressed to Lord Bolingbroke, a philosopher of the time.
Style and Contribution: Pope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of the classical school in the first half of the 18th century, a diligent reader. Pope¡¯s style also depended on his great patience in elaborating his art, autographs, proof-sheets and revised editions of his poems all showed his passion for retouching. He was the most important representative of the English classical poetry. He was at his best in satire and epigram and an example of conscious literary artist.
IV. Samuel Johnson (1709¡ª1784), lexicographer, critic and poet, he wrote essays, reviews, sermons, biographies, poetry, an edition of Shakespeare's plays and the Dictionary of the English Language¡­, was born in Lichfield of elderly parents; his father was a poor bookseller. He was educated at Lichfield Grammar School and Pembrock College, Oxford, where he spent 14 months, 1728¡ª1729, but took no degree. Then followed his long struggle as a hack writer for many years, Johnson wrote poems, essays, and accounts of parliamentary debates, made translations and compiled catalogues of books for the booksellers in London until he became known in literary circle. His principle works include ¡°London¡± (1738) and ¡°The Vanity of Human Wishes¡± (1749), two satires in heroic couplets ¡°Life of Richard Savage¡±. He also edited three Periodicals, ¡°The Rambler¡± (1750¡ª1752), ¡°The Adventure¡± and ¡°The Idler¡± (1758¡ª1760), after the pattern of ¡°The Spectator¡± of Addison and Steele. But the two most important of all his literary works are the Preface and comments of individual plays in his edition of Shakespeare (1765), and his ¡°The Lives of the Poets¡± (1779¡ª1781). The Dictionary published in 1755, after 8 years of labor, which firmly established his reputation, but his magnificent letter written to Lord Chesterfield(1694¡ª1773) was the writer¡¯s declaration of independence, signifying the opening of a new era in the development of literature.
V. Joseph Addison (1672¡ª1719) and Richard Steel
Richard Steel was born in Dublin, in the same year as Addison, and was educated with him at the Oxford University. So they became great friends and shared everything with each other. But unlike Addison, who was cold and reserved, Steele was impulsive and affectionate. He left the university to enter the House Guards. Then he was in turn soldier, captain, poet, playwright, essayist, member of Parliament, manager of theater, publisher of a newspaper and many of other things¡ªas all of which he worked joyously. He published *The Christian Hero in 1701, in which he first displayed his missionary and reforming spirit. In the same year he produced his first comedy The Funeral. Neither this nor his two next comedies, The Lying Lover (1703) and The Tender Husband (1705), proved very successful. In 1709, he started *The Tatler, which he carried on with the help of Addison till January 1711.Then in conjunction with Addison he ran another paper*The Spectator during 1711¡ª1712.
Joseph Addison, the son of a dean of Lichfield, was educated at Charterhouse and then at Oxford University with *Steel. Between 1709and 1711 he contributed a number of papers to Steel¡¯s *The Tatler and joined with him in the production of *The Spectator in 1711¡ª1712. His tragedy Cato was produced with much success in 1713, and during the same year he contributed to Steel¡¯s periodical The Guardian and during 1714 to the revived Spectator. He retired from office in 1718 and died in 1719. Addison¡¯s chief contribution to literature lies in his essays written for ¡°The Tatler¡± and ¡°The Spectator¡±.
Styles: Steele and Addison wrote in different styles. Steele took very little pains with his language. He was very busy. He wrote as he pleased, right from his heart. His style is intimate, easy-going and careless. But Addison was a careful writer and a great stylist. He created a perfect style-lucid, colloquial, full of individuality and refined by that choice of words which he had cultivated in writing Latin verse. ¡°The Tatler¡± and ¡°The Spectator¡± had many imitators in 18th century. Johnson¡¯s ¡°The Rambler¡± and ¡°The Idler¡± and Goldsmith¡¯s ¡°The Bee¡± are the most notable papers. From then on, humor, intimacy and elegance shown in the Tatler and Spectator essays have become the striking features of the English familiar essay.
Contribution: To sum up, Steele¡¯s and Addison¡¯s contribution to the English literature: 1.Their writings afford a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie. 2. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century. 3. In the hands of Addison and Steele, the English essay had completely established itself as a literature genre. (Liu Bingshan, 2002:156)


Reference Books:
1. Liu Bingshan, A Short History of English Literature (New Revised Edition), Henan People¡¯s Publishing House, 2002
2. Luo Jingguo, A New Anthology of English Literature, Beijing, Beijing University Press, 2001
3. Margaret Drabble, The Oxford Companion to English Literature (New Edition), England, Oxford University Press & China, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1985
4. Yan Yu, The World Literature Masterworks, Guilin, Lijiang Press,2002